Enid Blyton has been cancelled

The Royal Mint has decided against honouring children’s author Enid Blyton with a commemorative coin, marking the 50th anniversary of her death.

Blyton, the creator of the Famous Five and Noddy book series, has sold more books than any other children’s author, but her personal prejudices apparently make her unsuitable to celebrate.

According to the Daily Mail, members of the Royal Mint’s advisory committee branded Blyton ‘racist’, ‘sexist’ and ‘homophobic’ in a private meeting. One committee member even suggested she was not a ‘very well-regarded writer’.

Minutes from the committee meeting, revealed by a freedom-of-information request, show that the Mint feared there would be a backlash to a Blyton commemorative coin. And since the story broke, the usual, perma-outraged suspects have backed the Mint’s decision.

'#EnidBlyton doesn't deserve a commemorative coin for the same reason the BBC cut the golliwogs out of Noddy'. She wrote racist books and presented white, middle class, traditional gender roles as the norm. Sadly there are far too many parents in 2019 that yearn for those stories https://t.co/GzAVEEtzbD

Ven Oods

Never read them but have heard about them, which is more than I can claim regarding most present-day ‘celebs’. I’m obviously suffering from wilful under-exposure to social meeja.

Ven Oods

31st August 2019 at 10:27 pm

This whole concept of revisionism, whereby things can only be judged through an early 21st century lens seems daft.

I’m still waiting for the Woke Inquisition to catch up with Catch-22 because the maid in lime green panties was objectified.

chris Ray

31st August 2019 at 1:09 am

she was my favourite childhood author . effectively she taught me to read and love the written word —- as Im sure was the case for millions of children , what a marvellous contribution to humanity

Hana Jinks

29th August 2019 at 9:38 am

It is possible to be free of this PC- totalitarian trap that is being set against us. Big business is trying to enslave us, and they’re using the governments, courts and police to enforce it through political correctness. THEIR leftist idea of what politically correct means. (Spoiler Alert – it’s all lies that they’ve concocted themselves. )
The levt are nothing but diabolical liars, and they’ve programmed us through their schools to not only believe the lies of the climate-hoax and the benefits of diversity-communism, but how to censure dissent of it, and they’re ably supported by fake news, leftist media.

We must remove these lunatics out of our society. A vote for Anne Marie Waters would be the most peaceful solution at this stage.

Frank Sutton

28th August 2019 at 9:46 pm

Blyton – like everyone who lived in the past – must bear the guilt and shame of not measuring up the to the norms of August 2019.

JPM Culligan

31st August 2019 at 2:43 pm

That Shakespeare bloke should go too – how can such depictions of our fellow Europeans as murderous, incestuous, violent criminals be permitted, even if he portrays inhabitants of these isles in a similar fashion as a weak attempt to evade 21st century judgement!

Michael Lynch

28th August 2019 at 7:41 pm

It’ll be Orwell next. Doublethink, Newspeak and Thoughtcrimes are too close to the truth for the Woke generation!

T Zazoo

30th August 2019 at 2:17 am

Don’t forget the Two Minute Hate. That will have to go as it’s clearly not long enough.

Winston Stanley

28th August 2019 at 7:40 pm

The Faraway Tree series was my bedtime favourite as a toddler. Perhaps the whole idea of visiting divers magical lands is now considered colonialist if not outright carbon positive and unacceptably proletarian. Thankfully it was just fun and wilderment at that age. Thank you Enid.

James Hillier

28th August 2019 at 7:16 pm

What are “white, middle class, traditional gender roles”? Was it common in Black and Asian societies of the 1940s and 50s, or among the working classes, for women to show a higher propensity to risk-taking behaviours, to be the main breadwinner and to be the sex that more often exhibited status-seeking, to take a few examples of supposedly “gendered” behaviour?

Or is the use of the express “white, middle class, traditional gender roles” a sign that Professor Andrews is an ideologue who, rather than making an appeal to principle, is unthinkingly invoking the holy writ of his chosen creed as a cheap and easy way to score a victory over his chosen “other”?

The latter, of course.

Jerry Owen

28th August 2019 at 5:42 pm

I remember reading the ‘famous Five’ series of books as a child. They were fantastic adventure books. I can’t remember all the characters names, but I do remember that the dog was called ‘Timmy’ and not ‘N***er’ .
So how can she possibly be called racist !!

Linda Payne

28th August 2019 at 8:48 pm

I read every famous five book, I loved the sense of adventure of the characters and the fact that they did all this outside the influence and gaze of adults; the reason the JK Rowling was so popular is that she filled that sort of gap in the market where the children told the story. As much as these puritans ban this or that they cannot erase the truth which is that Blyton was a brilliant storyteller and that should be recognised, not her personal views

Jim Lawrie

1st September 2019 at 5:54 pm

If parents allowed that now they’d be jailed and the children rehomed in a safe space where they could be reprogrammed and have that nascent independence snuffed out of them. In fact they might even be incarcerated just for letting you read it.

Of course it cold all backfire as children, taught a Utopian version of the past, ask “So who came along and ruined it all by creating our present mess?”, to which the answer will be “The Fascists and the Nazis!”, to which the question will be ” … ?”

No doubt demand are being drafted for the considerable sums her estate rakes in to be handed over to … well, not you or me.

Will this affect the value of my 1968, hard cover, “The Three Golliwogs”? Selected and signed by a Marist Brother and lay teacher with between them c.50 years missionary work in Africa. If my PC nieces haven’t managed to burn it.
If it were re-released by someone else with a few name changes, it would be hailed as a masterpiece and shining example of woke literature. But you’d only know this if you had read it.